Southwest Chief Lounge Car-Colorado to New Mexico (written in New Mexico)

I thought I was spoiled the first time I rode the Capitol Limited.  I didn’t think I ever would have an experience like that again.  I knew I would ride trains, but I figured the people I would meet wouldn’t share their stories like the people on the Capitol Limited shared theirs.  Boy was I wrong.  Gina and I met a ton of people in the lounge car today. 

Here are some brief bios…

We met a woman who previously lived in Sweden.  The woman played in the World Table Tennis Championship games in Tokyo, Japan, and I don’t know where else.  She’s been to South Korea and “all over Europe,” too.  Now most of the woman’s family has relocated to San Diego.  She misses Sweden, though.  She said it was a great place to raise kids.  The nature reserve by her house in Sweden sounded beautiful.  I think she said it was called, “God’s Green Pasture,” but I’m not sure who named it that.  Her children spent a lot of time there using “their imaginations.”  I bet if Brad and I live off the grid some where our kids can have that type of experience, too.  I know it’s cliché, but there’s nothing like the great outdoors. 

The woman who previously lived in Sweden was sitting next to a young man from Oklahoma.  He was a world traveler, too.  He mentioned that he had been to Kenya before.  I forget where else he said he had been and where he was traveling to.  I don’t forget, though, how much he said he loves to snowboard.  He said I should try it sometime, and I definitely will because it’s on my #bucketlist. 

Gina and I also met a woman from Tokyo.  The woman from Tokyo and I sat together while listening to the history lesson the conductor provided us about Wooten Ranch and Raton Pass.  Tokyo is studying at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York.  I don’t know what she’s studying, but she was reading what looked like a school paper before we started talking.  Somehow, my trip to Africa came up, and the woman from Tokyo mentioned that she traveled to Botswana in 2008.

Toward the end of our time in the lounge car, Gina and I spent a lot of time talking to Topeka.  He got on in Topeka, Kansas and was getting off in Albuquerque, NM.  I never asked where he was from.  I know he is in the Army and has lived all over the place.  His last deployment was his third, and oddly enough he was in Afghanistan at the same time as Brad was.  Same general area, too.  The reason I call Topeka “Topeka” is because that’s where he boarded the train.  I mentioned to him that I live in Harrisonburg, VA.  He then pulled out a wooden lighter that he bought from Shenandoah National Park.  While chatting, Topeka informed me that he was the “Stony Man Trail champ,” and he received that honor after his friends and him raced to the top of the mountain.  Topeka also informed me that he would love to hike the Appalachian Train.  Just like Brad and myself, he wants to go southbound (i.e. Maine to Georgia). 

I remember the first time I told Uncle Jack, I wanted to hike the AT.  I think he thought I was crazy.  He told me to make sure I hiked Maine to Georgia so I was hiking downhill the whole way. =) Thinking about that makes me smile.  Hence, the smiley face.  I saw a pretty neat rainbow mural on the side of a building in Albuquerque, NM.  That made me smile, too.  As many of you have, I’ve seen a ton of rainbows since Uncle Jack’s passing. 

Back to the lounge car, I don’t know much about the little boy who made a snowball from the snow that blew into the connecting car, or the man who previously traveled the Southwest Chief in the spring.  But they were sightseeing with Gina and me, too.